Sean Keenan Commemoration (UPDATED!)

Best of luck to those attending this commemoration. Hopefully one of the Board members will type up a report of the event!

"A dedicated revolutionary all his life, Seán Keenan?s story is typical of nationalist Derry and of Ireland. Imprisoned without ever standing in a court and unemployed for periods, he was forced to emigrate to England to find work and support his young family. Even there he continued his work with the Republican Movement. "Jailed first in 1935 for carrying the Irish flag at an election meeting, he became a leader of the internees in 1938-45, in 1956-61 and in the early 1970s. A Gaelic footballer who later served as a referee, and a fluent Irish speaker he organised and conducted choirs among the prisoners with great success. "It was natural that he should be to the fore in the Civil Rights movement in his native Derry and when the Derry Citizens' Defence Association was set up in 1969 he became its Chair. "It erected barricades, mounted patrols, provided first-aid and countered CS gas attacks. Later it took control of administration and security behind the barricades of what became known to the world as "Free Derry". "During this time of struggle and turmoil he worked closely with his friend Dáithí Ó Conaill, then based in Co Donegal. His wife, Nancy Ward, a member of Cumann na mBan and an internee in Armagh Jail in the early 1940s, died before her time in 1970. His son Colm was shot dead by British troops while he was engaged in an armed IRA patrol in Free Derry along with Vol Eugene McGillan. "Seán Keenan rejected the constitutional attempts in 1969-70 of what became the Workers' Party to accept Westminster, Stormont and Leinster House. Always a revolutionary, he spurned a similar move when it was made by the Provisionals in 1986. "Always follow the Cause and not the person," he used to say. In the late 1980s he was made Honorary Vice-President for life of Republican Sinn Féin in recognition of his steadfastness, service and sacrifice over so many years. "In 1989 his nomination papers for the local elections in the Six Counties, along with those of 22 other Republican Sinn Féin candidates, were refused by the British authorities because they would not sign the political -*test*-('") oath imposed by the Thatcher régime. Seán Keenan and Veronica Taylor tore up their undemocratically rejected nomination papers in public. "As a man Seán was unfailingly good-humoured, a quality essential to the committed revolutionary. His friends in Connacht, where he spent some time organising, fondly remember his conducting of impromptu choral singing in Irish and English after public functions. "Personally it was my honour to serve with him on three continents when he went abroad as an ambassador of goodwill for the Republican Movement. Seán with his impeccable credentials was most impressive in meetings with liberation movements from all over the world. "His father, Séamus -- Quartermaster of Derry City Battalion, IRA -- died shortly after release from imprisonment in 1942. His brothers Terry and Dan were interned with him during that period. "Seán Keenan fought against British rule, Stormont and the Unionist Veto on Irish National independence all his life. He struggled for human rights, democracy, the emancipation of the working people and community rights. He would not now throw the whole of his life's work and sacrifice into reverse by accepting the Stormont Agreement of 1998. "In particular he would not entertain the exposure of weapons dumps to the British government. Neither would he recognise a "new look" colonial police force in Ireland. "A force recruited, trained, motivated, armed and directed by the English government is a British police force, he would maintain. "Such a body can only uphold British rule in Ireland, and young Irish people should not join it, thereby committing themselves to "doing England's dirty work" here. ... "Young people today should model their lives on Seán Keenan's unselfish example. He sought nothing for himself and everything for others. An uncompromising stand, like that of Seán Keenan, is essential to achieve an end to English rule and a new and better Ireland with power and control over their lives for all sections of people" - excerpts of Ó Brádaigh's 2000 oration. Full text in Saoirse, November 2000 issue

SEÁN KEENAN COMMEMORATED IN DERRY CITY The annual Seán Keenan Commemoration took place on Sunday, 2nd March in the Bogside area of Derry City. Approximately one-hundred people turned out despite inclement weather conditions to honour the life of the veteran Derry Republican. A Republican colour party, led by a piper, marched to the Fahan Street memorial at 3p.m. The commemoration was chaired by Michael McGonigle, Dungiven. Wreaths were laid on behalf of the Leadership of the Republican Movement by Pat Barry, Bundoran; Comhairle Uladh (Ulster Executive) by Nuala Moore, Monaghan, and on behalf of the Keenan family by Seán's daughter, Róisín Barton, Derry. Richard Walsh, Derry, read the 1916 Proclamation, and a decade of the Rosary was recited as Gaeilge by Seánín Brady, Dungiven. A fine oration was delivered by Mayo Republican, Dan Hoban. Adrian Haire, grandnephew of faithful TD Comdt-Gen. Thomas Maguire, laid a wreath on behalf of Republican Sinn Féin in memory of the Bloody Sunday martyrs. Proceedings concluded with the playing of the National Anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann.

SECTION OF ORATION BY DAN HOBAN (MAYO) AT SEÁN KEENAN COMMEMORATION “I was in Portlaoise Gaol in the 1970s with one Martin McGuinness who had the audacity to turn around and call me a Free Stater. Who's the Free Stater now? Who's the Brit? Who's the person who is leading the Irish people down the British avenue? We know who those people are, but we as Republicans will not be fooled by them. The Republican Movement has to be rebuilt, reorganised and brought back to its former glory and we cannot be led down an avenue by these people who sold us out. “Seán Keenan fought them all his life – he fought them in the '40s, he didn't go with them in the '50s, and when the Stickies came in here telling us what to do in the early 1970s he told them where to go, and if he was with us today he would tell the people who are below in Dublin today who have sold out the people of Derry and the people throughout the north where to go. He would have given them the message that the Irish people must fight on and they must get the Brits out of this country once and for all. That is the message that must go from here today. That is the message that Seán Keenan would have given them. “The Irish people will not be taken down that avenue. Seán Keenan gave his lifetime to the Republican Cause, and now that he has passed on we must take up the cudgel and take on the message that he has left us. The Stormont Agreement is not for Republicans, and the Republican Movement must stand firm and fight on on its own. “We in the Republican Movement must be strong – we must get back to where we were before this erupted and before people's vision became blurred. There were people in the Republican Movement who thought that this would never happen – that they would go into Stormont, and become Ministers of the Crown, and that they would implement the rule of British law over us Republicans. These people who have gone down this road have no conscience, so long as they can gain power. The road that Seán Keenan followed for all those years was a long and arduous road. “There were times when you had to be there to be counted on your own for nobody would back you up and you hadn't too many friends. But the Republican Movement must be rebuilt and I am confident that this time is coming, and the Republican Movement is on the road back. Let nobody be fooled by this 'new' police force, the PSNI. The day will come when Republicans will be met head on both by the Free State forces and by the PSNI. We have to be ready for that. We have to think of men like Seán Keenan and the others who died for the Republican Movement. What did they die for? They died for the freedom of this country, and we have to honour it and rededicate ourselves to that Cause. “I will conclude by saying what Pádraig Pearse said at the grave of O'Donavan Rossa “They have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace!”

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